When Tonya next awoke, she woke up with a bursting headache as if her skull was about to explode. Her eyes hurt already from its stiff partial movements as she kept her eyelids shut, and she could only sense the outside world through the Wave. The one signature that she has felt ever since she had been fading in and out of consciousness had been at her side for the past little while. However, something didn't make sense.

The presence that belonged to the dead, or more specifically, someone that should be dead. And yet, she clearly felt him move around her, and she smelled something akin to a soup?

Is she in the kitchen of the underworld? The hell's kitchen?

“You are awake.” Augen’s calm voice came from beside her as she slowly turned her head to the side, though that small movement had gifted her yet another bout of pain that immediately slammed her back down to her original position.

“You are alive.” Tonya said, licking her dry lips when Augen leaned over with a cup in hand and slowly fed her some more cactus juice. What was once bitter and disgusting now tasted like liquor from heaven.

So perhaps heaven's kitchen.

She opened her eyes with great difficulty as if fresh wounds were being torn open. The room they were in was gently lit with a small candle, and it revealed a small rocky inner wall.

“I am, indeed.” Augen smiled as Tonya noticed his face without the bandanna, and she stared at the scars over his eyes before becoming more embarrassed and forcing herself to look away.

“How?”

“Just like you with your strange abilities, I have mine too.” Augen replied swiftly before Tonya tilted her chin lightly after drinking enough of the juices and he put the bowl away, “I suppose both of these came with a bit of a price.”

“Ye…yeah…” Tonya sighed, “I…think you should get away from here.”

“From what?”

“From this. From me.” Tonya faced Augen, who matched her movement as they squared up against one another. Though Tonya couldn’t see his eyes, she knew that he was paying his full attention to her, “If you become entangled in my mess any further…you will just be hunted down within Necrovia by more and more people.”

Augen felt for Tanya’s Wave, and he sighed before slightly shaking his head, “You know I tried not to ask you anything, right?”

Tonya nodded, though she didn’t know if Augen felt that too.

“And I know that you also didn’t ask me anything in return.” Augen said, sitting down opposite Tonya and crossing his legs as the warm light of the candle lit the side of his face, “Because if either of us knew the truth about the other, we would become tangled in each other’s messes, as you’ve said.”

“And…I don’t want to put you in any more danger…” Tonya lowered her head.

“…Before I came here, I was in the Kingdom of Basha.” Augen said with a smile as he reached a hand towards Tonya. Then, strands of Wave extended from the tips of his fingers as Tonya bit onto her lips and hesitated.

She reached her hand out, and their Wave connected when Augen shared what had happened back then with Tonya standing right beside him in the mindscape of his memories.

“Come with me, Fatera.” Augen said, reaching his hand out the same way that he did to Tonya just now as Fatera glanced towards him with her crimson eyes and bit her lips, “We will go out there and explore the world! We can train each other the same way we did before!”

“Or come with me instead, daughter. Join me just like before.” Yan the Lossless countered, “You wanted to become the strongest individual in this world? Then let me teach you everything that I know…”

“Remember what you were fighting for!” Augen said, trying to rekindle Fatera’s memories and motivations, “Remember what happened on the Island?”

"Ya lied to me on the island.” Fatera lowered her head and clenched her fist, “I…know why ya did this…I know ya did this for me…but at the end of the day, this is my decision, not yours.”

Augen froze in his way, and he bit onto his lips before nodding, “I…am sorry…but that still doesn’t mean going with him is the right choice.”

“Well, Augen.” Yan sensed his impending victory and turned around, “As she said. This is indeed her choice. I will wait at the Eastern edge of the forest, and if you decided to come with me, get there by dawn tomorrow.”

“I will wait by the streams.” Augen said, still hopeful as Fatera’s Wave stirred, and she glanced back and forth between the two of them, “Same time. I trust you will make the right decision…Fatera.”

Fatera nodded before leaping up onto the trees and hopping away. Soon, Yan’s presence in the Wave also disappeared, and Augen found himself sitting alone in the woods.

He waited and waited, but she never showed up. Perhaps going with Yan was the right decision for her, perhaps he went too far in trying to temper in other people’s future, and perhaps…

“NO!” Augen slammed his fist into the ground and gritted, “No…that future…cannot happen…no matter what…”

“What…future?” Tonya asked quietly, and the Augen in the present next to her and the one sitting by the streams merged with the Augen from the past as the scenery of the woods slowly started to fade away into obscurity and the two of them returned to the dimly lit stony house.

“Her future…” Augen said, “In exchange for my sight, I can see fragments of the future through a forbidden Cast.”

“That’s…possible?” Tonya covered her mouth in surprise, and inevitably, her mind started to wonder, “Can you…see mine?”

“I could…but I really shouldn’t…” Augen sighed before drawing away, “After what happened…I am only going to use this ability in combat to keep those that I care about ahead of the enemy. But beyond that…I am not going to use it anymore.”

“I understand.” Tonya said quietly.

“It’s not just that.” Augen continued, putting both of his hands to the side, “I use forbidden Casts, and I pay for the prices all by myself. That’s kind of my thing, and that’s all of the small dirty secrets I have. I am a bit of a dick, I am insecure, and a little manipulative, and I probably deserve whatever hell is coming to me...”

“Small secret's probably an understatement for a being of Yan the Lossless's caliber…” Tonya smiled, “Even I know who he is…”

“I guess that's another shitty habit of mine…” Augen shrugged, “When you spent years at the Academy, your perspective on things and people…tended to skew.”

“Just like Ilia did…” Tonya murmured before she looked towards Augen with great hesitation. Then, she rubbed her eyes and sighed, “I know you told me everything, but…I just can’t drag you into this.”

“Believe me. Judging by Ilia’s reaction to seeing you and me getting away, I am already entangled here.” Augen said before he drew his hand back and started stretching his sore back, "He's coming for us both."

“No, he won't.” Tonya shook her head as her hair waved from side to side, “Because I used my King’s Eye on him.”

“The…what?” Augen tilted his head as Tonya felt a pulse of pain emanating from the center of her head, and she winced. Augen sensed it through the Wave, and he quickly laid her down before handing her another bowl of juice.

“It’s the most sacred ability blessed to the royal family of Necrovia once a generation, and it’s said to bring great prosperity to the kingdom if in the right hands, and total destruction in the wrong,” Tonya explained slowly as Augen reached his Wave forward and tried to probe for the focal points of the Wave around Tonya’s eyes.

“I have heard a few of those before.” Augen said, “But what exactly are you talking about here? What abilities does the eye give you?”

“I don’t really know…” Tonya said, “My father had the last pair, and…he…his eyes must have been destroyed before they were taken, or my abilities wouldn’t have been awoken under these…scenarios.”

“I…am sorry.” Augen sighed as Tonya shook her head.

“I just can’t think about that right now…” Tonya said slowly as if she's trying to convince herself, “I am the princess of the previous ruling family and the kingdom of Necrovia, with the eyes to be able to control everything and everyone within the Kingdom...so many people are counting on these eyes to lead them, and I cannot afford to stop here...I mustn't stop here...”

"I have had my share of having my bodies completely destroyed." Augen said as Tonya looked him with a mortified look, "Well...I do have a cast that prevents me from dying...so..."

"That's unfair..." Tonya rolled her head to the side.

"Well, it just takes time off my future lifespan." Augen shrugged, "Candles that burn the brightest burn the fastest, right?"

"I...don't know what to say..." Tonya hit the bottom half of her face under the blanket as she watched Augen, "How can you face all of these things so calmly...?"

"Part of me knew the price. And the other part...liked talking about it." Augen said.

Tonya's eyes opened up wider than before, and she slowly reached one hand towards Augen, though she worried that he wouldn't know.

Instead, their palms and their Wave connected.

"Can I...talk about it too?" She asked when Augen smiled and held her hand firmly.

“Hurry and wake up, my princess!”

Tonya rattled away from her sleep as the sounds of footsteps rocked the floors above and below her. Her servant was shaking her by the shoulders, and from beyond the rooms, Tonya saw shadows rapidly moving through the corridor when the screams of guards became quickly silenced by an athletic-looking shadow that darting through the space with blinding speed.

“What…what’s going on?” Tonya opened her eyes, though her brain was still slow from her slumber.

“It’s a revolt!” The servant's words rang true as Tonya’s eyes widened.

“What?!” Tonya sat up as the servant reached into a drawer under her bed and pulled out a stack of plain civilian clothes before she quickly dressed up the girl, “Mom! Dad!”

“The King and the queen are taken care of by the other guards!” The servant said quickly as she tried to hide her own fear, though Tonya can feel it straight through her trembling hands. But what could she have said or done to calm her down?

She was but a sixteen-year-old sheltered princess of the current King, and she enjoyed her liberties and education with the Kingdom’s best and brightest. She had pretty clothes, enjoyed baths when water was a somewhat limited resource, and had food and drink whenever she wanted.

However, all of those were being ripped away by what’s happening right here and right now. As her father neared the end of his ruling days, the political gears had been turning nonstop behind the scenes to secure the transition of power onto the next generation of rulers, and when he couldn’t father a son, the next in line to rule would have been his younger brother.

However, the obvious issue was that of the King’s eye, and the fate of Necrovia was depending on which individual with the royal blood manifested it. Of course, there had always been another far more sinister option.

Taking the eyes by force before it was passed on.

And that was what this revolt was about, alongside cleansing the palace of political opposition. Tonya had seen the King's Eye in action, and it settled the greed of the upper classes and ousted corrupted schemes while discouraging any hints of rebellion and instability.

As Casts flew everywhere around the main palace and fire was lit up along the corridors, Tonya made a run for it.

Just as she just made it out of the palace alongside her servant who kept her book of Cast around her, the central palace tower exploded in an outburst of flames and smoke as Tonya screamed and tried to run back towards the destruction. However, the servant swiftly bound her with a trapping Cast and kept moving her away.

“NO! LET ME GO BACK! MOM! DAD!” Tonya shouted when the servant swirled her hand and sealed her mouth too.

“Please, princess…just run…get as far away from here as you can!” She plead when she suddenly sensed the Wave of approaching soldiers. In that instance, she made the final decision before she conjured up a chariot made of sand and sent Tonya flying away.

She was then quickly surrounded by guards dressed in armor that Tonya had never seen before, and was cut down just as quickly.

“NO!” Tonya let out a suppressed scream, but the Cast was still strong as she realized that the old servant that’s been with her since childhood had exhausted every ounce of Wave to keep her alive, sacrificing her own protection in the process.

However, before she could break free, the chariot turned sharply into the alleyway and stopped in the shadows, the change in momentum tossing her body against the interior walls when guards flew by overhead and rode past her underground.

When the first batch completely passed by, the chariot started moving once again, sneaking out from the central area onto the outer regions of the city when a squad of patrolling guards spotted her.

Tonya cursed and finally ripped herself free from the Trapping Cast. As she looked back at the palace, it was as if nothing's happening at all. To cover up the revolt from the inner districts, a projection Cast had already been set.

At this point in the night, the capital of Necrovia, the Dune’s Eye, looked as peaceful as ever.

“Hey! Don’t you know there’s a curfew tonight?!” The guards asked when Tonya felt flames burning her eyes as an unknown Wave started to surround her body, “Power down, and don’t move a finger!”

Then, Tonya glanced towards them with a pair of crown symbols glowing in the middle of her blue eyes and tilted her head slightly, “Move.”